Download light years - Physics and Astronomy

Scales of the Universe
Powers of 10 film
What conclusions can
you draw from this film
Continuing A Quick
Tour of the Universe
(and this course)
Cassiopeia A: Supernova Remnant
Example Supernova: 1998bw
A Young Supernova
SN 1993J
Rupen et al.
1 kpc
Cosmic Microwave Background
Clicker Question:
If Earth rotated twice as fast as it
currently does, but its motion around the
sun stayed the same, then which of the
following is true:
A: the night would be twice as long
B: the night would be half as long
C: the year would be half as long
D: the year would be twice as long
E: the length of a day would be unchanged
Foundations of Astronomy
The Metric System
(used by scientists and foreigners)
Mass
1 kilogram (kg) = 1000 grams (g)
28 g = 1 ounce
If your mass is 220 lbs, it's also 100 kg.
We tend to use mass and weight interchangeably, but weight
depends on gravity.
Distance
1 meter (m) = 100 centimeters (cm)
= 39.4 inches
(slightly longer than a yard - your professor is 1.8 m in height)
1 cm = 0.39 inches
Volume
1 cubic centimeter or 1 cm3 = 0.06 cubic inches
(about the size of a sugar cube)
Temperature
The Celsius Scale:
T(oC) = 5/9 [ T(oF) - 32 oF ]
so
32 oF = 0 oC
212 oF = 100 oC
68 oF = 20 oC
The Kelvin Scale:
T(K) = T(oC) + 273 oC
"Absolute zero" 0 K = -273 oC
Angular Measure
90o
20o
360o, or 360 degrees, in a circle.
1o = 60' or arcminutes
1' = 60" or arcseconds
1" = 1000 mas or milli-arcseconds
Angular Measure
• Full circle contains
360° (degrees).
• Each degree contains
60′ (arc-minutes).
• Each arc-minute
contains 60″ (arcseconds).
• Angular size of an
object depends on actual
size and distance away.
THE QUEST FOR RESOLUTION
Resolution = Observing wavelength / Telescope diameter
Angular
Optical (5000A)
Radio (4cm)
Resolution Diameter Instrument
Diameter Instrument
2mm
Eye
140m
GBT+
1¢
10cm
Amateur Telescope 8km
VLA-B
1²
2m
HST
160km
MERLIN
0.²05
100m
Interferometer
8200km VLBI
0.²001
Atmosphere gives 1" limit without corrections which are easiest in radio
1 arcmin
Jupiter and Io as seen from Earth
1 arcsec
0.05 arcsec
0.001 arcsec
Simulated with Galileo photo
Scientific Notation
(A shorthand way of writing very large and small numbers, which
occur often in astronomy).
We use powers, or exponents, of 10:
100
1000
1,000,000
10
1
0.1
0.0001
0.007
= 102 (= 10 x 10)
= 103 (= 10 x 10 x 10)
= 106
= 101
= 100
= 10 -1
= 10 -4
= 7 x 10 -3
Add the exponents
4000 x 0.002 = (4 x 103) x (2 x 10 -3)
= 8 x 100 = 8
Scales of your world
Think about
• How big your car is?
• How your house/apartment is?
• How big Albuquerque is?
• How big the US is?
• How far away the farthest place you have travelled is?
• How massive a very big man-made object is?
In astronomy, we deal with:
1. Vast distances
•
- Radius of Earth = 6,400 km = 6.4 x 106 m
- Distance to Moon =384,000 km = 3.8 x 108 m
•
•
- Distance to Sun = 1.5 x 1011 m = 23,500 Earth radii
= 1 Astronomical Unit (AU)
- Distance to next nearest star (Proxima Centauri): 270,000 AU = 4.3 "light
years" (light year: distance light travels in one year, 9.5 x 1012 km. Speed
of light c = 3 x 108 m/sec)
•
- Size of Milky Way Galaxy: about 100,000 light years
•
- Distance to Andromeda Galaxy = 2.5 million light years
- Distance to nearest cluster of galaxies (Virgo Cluster): 5 x 107 light years
2. Huge masses:
- Mass of Earth = 6 x 1024 kg = 6 x 1027 g = 1 MEarth
(or 6000 billion billion tons)
- Mass of Sun = 2 x 1030 kg = 2 x 1033 g = 1 MSun
= 1 "Solar Mass"
= 333,000 MEarth
- Mass of Milky Way galaxy: more than 1011 MSun
- Mass of a typical cluster of galaxies: about 1015 MSun
3. Long ages and times:
- Age of Earth and Solar System: 4.5 billion years
= 4.5 x 109 years
- Lifetime of stars: about 106 - 1010 years
-Age of universe: about 1010 years
4. Very high and low temperatures:
- An interstellar "molecular cloud":
T = 10 K
- Center of Sun:
T = 1.5 x 107 K
Clicker Question:
How many stars are there in the
observable universe?
A: 1012
B: 1022
C: 1032
D: 1042
E: infinite
Clicker Question:
Distances to nearby stars are measured
by:
A: bouncing radar signals off them
B: using laser beams
C: using geometry and parallax measurements
D: measuring how long it took a spacecraft to get there
and back and assuming a constant velocity.
The Sky at Night
What do we see?
The Moon
Planets
Perhaps a meteor shower, comet, or other rare event
Stars - about 3000 visible
Patterns of stars - constellations
88 of them
Useful for finding our way around the sky,
navigating the oceans
Satellites, airplanes, clouds, lightning, light pollution ...
The Celestial Sphere
An ancient concept, as if all
objects at same distance.
But to find things on sky,
don't need to know their
distance, so still useful today.
Features:
- Does not rotate with Earth
- Poles, Equator
- Coordinate System
The "Solar Day" and the "Sidereal Day"
Solar Day
How long it takes for the Sun to return to the same position
in the sky (24 hours).
Sidereal Day
How long it takes for the Earth to rotate 360o on its axis.
These are not the same!
One solar day later, the Earth has rotated slightly more than 360o .
A solar day is longer than a sidereal day by 3.9 minutes
(24 hours vs. 23 hours 56 minutes 4.091 seconds).